Jetpack Competitors Start Dogfight With Flashy New Startup

The Martin Jetpack, like the three big rocket belts before it, took off this month in a surge of buzz and headlines. Now other pioneering rocketeers are speaking out for the first time, going so far as to call the new device a "widow maker." Could the new battle finally spell takeoff for this futuristic industry—or just more prolonged promise?

Glenn Martin's new jetpack (top) has riled an otherwise chummy niche industry, with early questions on the device's technology and safety coming from all three main competitors: Thunderbolt Aerosystems, TAM and JetPack International (bottom left to right).

The jet-pack family seems to have a new member, but other players in this notoriously long-shot industry aren't exactly welcoming the newest rocketeer to the party.

It's not just the fancy flight of futurists anymore: There is an industry for personal rocket belts. And by all accounts, the world of jet packs is a chummy little corner of the global marketplace--a safe haven for good-natured competition and long-held dreams that are perennially deferred. Up until now, jet-pack makers have stuck together. Early this year, the two-company industry welcomed a third player, Thunderbolt Aerosystems, whose new Thunderbolt rocket belt arrived with a burst of international headlines. The heads of all three startups refer to each other on a first-name basis, always prefacing any trash-talk with assurances of the utmost personal respect.

"It's more of an ultralight than a jet pack," says Troy Widgery, founder of JetPack International. Carmelo Amarena, president of Thunderbolt Aerosystems, puts it more bluntly: "If he's calling it a jet pack, he might as well call it a jet fighter." And Juan Manuel Lozano, founder of TAM Rocketbelt, wrote in an e-mail that he feels that the Martin Jetpack "is a lethal machine." Lozano says he's even contacted Martin, warning him that, in Lozano's opinion, the device is a widow maker.

Given the buzz that the Martin Jetpack has garnered, some slings and arrows are to be expected. But for the jet-pack industry, and particularly for these company heads, this is an noticeably high amount of abuse to heap on a new design. Their first complaint is the name of the device. The Martin Jetpack, which is fitted with two ducted fans and a two-stroke, gasoline-powered piston engine, is not technically powered by jets. However, neither are the models that TAM, JetPack International and Thunderbolt are currently flying. These are rocket belts, propelled by hydrogen-peroxide-burning rockets. The distinction may sound like semantics, but a true jet pack is this industry's holy grail, allowing for significantly longer flight times and reduced weight.

JetPack International has even scrapped its plans to sell rocket belts to the general public, in favor of eventually selling its turbine-powered T73. According to Widgery, the T73, which is designed to fly for as long as 19 minutes (the company's H202 rocket belt, by comparison, can stay aloft for just 33 seconds), won't be ready for at least another year. TAM Rocketbelt's propane-powered jet belt is also still in development, and also estimated to take another year. Thunderbolt has also mentioned plans for a jet pack, capable of as much as 35 minutes of flying time, but the device has yet to surface. So for an industry striving for jet-powered viability--and profitability--the arrival of a ducted-fan ultralight that calls itself a jet pack is creating more tension than takeoff.

The primary criticism of the Martin Jetpack has nothing to do with its name, but its design. The fact that the device reached no more than 6 ft. of altitude during its various test runs at Oshkosh could indicate that it's not achieving true flight, but a limited amount of lift, due to a phenomenon called "ground effect." Spinning blades can create a cushion of air below a vehicle, which is how hovercrafts glide across the water. True flight, however, requires significantly more power. This was the problem that plagued the SoloTrek, a ducted-fan device that NASA tested between 2000 and 2003, then ultimately abandoned. The SoloTrek achieved impressive flight times--as long as two hours--but could not gain any significant altitude. Whether Martin's Jetpack is capable of more than ground-effect gliding is up for debate. "If you can fly it at 3 ft., you can fly it at 3000," Martin told the New York Times in Oshkosh.

These high-flying plans have raised safety concerns. Martin hopes to have his pack reach 500 ft.--higher than any rocket belt has gone--within the next six months. It's precisely that kind of talk that has TAM's Lozano worried. The inventor believes that, compared to a hydrogen-peroxide-burning rocket or a turbine, the Martin Jetpack's two-stroke engine is extremely unreliable. Lozano points out that if the engine goes during flight, the Martin Jetpack's ballistic parachute would only be effective if the craft had reached at least 100 ft. Any lower, and the 250-pound device, which has no wings or other flight-control surfaces, would likely crash headfirst into the ground.

Writing in an e-mail, Martin insisted that his creation is not only safe, and includes what amounts to a roll cage, but allows for safety features that aren't found on existing rocket belts. The ducted fans and control arms surround the pilot, and a bar that extends downward from the device transfers the impact of landing away from the knees. As for its performance? "The Martin Jetpack is at least [a] 70- to 100-fold improvement over previous jetpacks," he wrote, maintaining that his creation "is indeed a paradigm shift, just as the jet engine was a paradigm shift for aircraft."

Whether Martin can back up his claims--and silence warnings from his competitors--remains to be seen, but the inventor hopes to begin selling his ducted-fan ultralight next year, for as little as $100,000. In fact, Martin says he's already received orders.

In the meantime, Thunderbolt's Amarena says that his company has sold at least four of its $90,000 TG-R2G2M rocket belts. Thunderbolt is also getting ready to unveil the world's first rocket-belt simulator, providing a safer way to train pilots. The simulator, which should be ready in two months, will be used to train pilots to maintain balance while ascending and descending, and will use hydraulics to suspend the pilot, who will be wearing a water-filled rocket belt. And although he won't release any details, Amarena also says that Thunderbolt is in talks with a planned extreme sports facility, where riders will be able to fly a tethered rocket belt, and possibly receive certification in a way similar to taking scuba classes or attending a racing school. JetPack International's Widgery still believes that his $200,000 T73 jet pack will be a hit among the Richard Bransons of the world--"the guy who already has a Ferrari and a Porsche, but he's also into extreme sports," Widgery says. It will be a milestone if wealthy daredevils start jetting through their toney estates at unwise speeds. But if Thunderbolt's deal goes through, and a rocket-belt attractionÃ'and better yet, rocketeer certification--becomes a reality, then the everyman's jet pack will have officially landed.

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